New
Perspectives for Learning - Briefing Paper 22

Lifelong learning: the role
of human resource development within organisations

Context of the Research

Lifelong learning has become, and
will remain, an important issue for Europe, as it develops into a “learning
society”. Work organisations are becoming important partners in this
learning society, as they provide ever more opportunities for continuous
learning to their employees, in order to optimise organisational learning. Companies that explicitly encourage and support
worker learning, from a strategic perspective, are called ‘learning
organisations’.

The new focus on employee learning
changes the role of the Human Resource Development (HRD) function. The role
of HRD within 'learning organisations' is becoming clearer, but many
uncertainties remain for HRD professionals, especially with regard to the
question of how to bring their new roles into practice. There are only a few
instruments to help HRD officers in this regard. Yet, many interesting
initiatives are being undertaken by HRD practitioners throughout Europe to
support strategic learning processes of the organisation as a whole.

This project has examined these HRD
initiatives with the objective of firstly clarifying the specific European
outlook on the role that HRD, (in learning oriented organisations) can
fulfil in lifelong learning, thus contributing to the discussion on a ‘European
model of lifelong learning’. Secondly the project aimed to contribute to
the further professionalisation of HRD in Europe, by providing both conceptual perspectives and
practical examples.

Case study descriptions were made from HRD
functions within 30 large “learning oriented” organisations throughout
Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Additionally, a survey was held under a larger group of 165 companies. Based
on a literature review comparisons were made with Japanese and US
organisations.

Key research
questions, guiding data collection, were:

1.How do HRD departments in learning oriented organisations envision
their own role in stimulating and supporting employee learning?

2.What strategies do they adopt to realise their envisioned role?

3.What factors inhibit the realisation of this new role? How do HRD
practitioners cope with them?

4. What
factors facilitate the realisation of HRD’s new role?

Key Conclusions

The following key conclusions were
reached: -

The learning organisation is an important
metaphor for HRD professionals to assist them in:

a)Developing collective intelligence within organisations and
organisational forms supporting such a need thus eliminating the holding of
knowledge in separate compartments at different levels.

b)Understanding the importance of knowledge and in particular tacit
knowledge, which has to be recognised and valorised insofar as it is
embedded in human resources.

c)Moving from training-based development policies towards new policies
fostering learning in different ways (support for competencies development,
learning networks, learning self-assessment in the communities of practice).

Learning oriented organisations do employ a rich
bouquet of change initiatives, in which, no one type of change is
particularly dominant.

The main motivator for wanting to become a learning
organisation is the desire to become more client centred by continuous
improvement and innovation. However, more people-oriented reasons such
as improving the quality of working life seem to play a role as well.

The envisioned role of HRD professionals within
learning organisations is to: -

a)Support the business.

b)Support (informal) learning.

c)Support knowledge sharing (as a special form of supporting informal
learning).

d)Develop and coordinate training.

e)Change HRD practices.

Although HRD professionals, consider that this is
still their main responsibility, managers and employees are important
active partners in supporting learning, and are expected to become more
so in the future. Their role is predominantly one of identifying
learning needs, stimulating and supporting informal learning, ensuring
the continuous learning of themselves and others. HRD professionals will
continue to provide support like organising training and supporting
informal learning efforts.

However, it was found that HRD training-related
strategies still fulfil a significant role, with instruments and
initiatives to increase employee responsibility for learning, being of
least importance.

Thus HRD practices to some extent appear to fall
behind HRD visions and do not paint a picture of very innovative HRD
practices, dominated by new methods such as knowledge management
networks and a stimulating learning climate in the workplace. This may
be partially because HRD objectives are not that wide-ranging.

No specific influencing factors were found to stop
HRD professionals from changing their practices more significantly.
Although some barriers to change were found: -

a)Insufficient time for learning on the part of the employees.

b)Insufficient time for performing HRD tasks on the part of the
managers.

c)Lack of clarity on the role of HRD.

The type of organisation does not influence the way
in which the organisation envisage the role of HRD; the strategies they
employ to implement HRD activities and the factors that facilitate the
attainment of the envisioned role of HRD.

There is no one single European model for HRD,
although there are subtle but meaningful differences as to the
philosophies, strategies, and practices on HRD across the countries in
the study.

Nor, is there any overriding 'Japanese' or 'US' HRD
vision as the differences between the companies are huge.

Line-managers are increasingly taken a role in the
development of human resources due to: -

a)The convergence of management of organisational competences (aimed at
internal effectiveness and competitive advantages on the market), and the
management of individual/communities competencies (based on explicit and
tacit knowledge)

b)New ways of organising firms.

Key Recommendations

The following recommendations were
made: -

Managers fulfil a key role in changing HRD
practices but it was found that it is sometimes difficult to get them to
fulfil this active role, either because of their workload, lack of
affinity with HRD tasks or a lack of skills in this field.

Therefore in the short term, it is necessary to
find strategies to involve managers in HRD, by changing their views on
learning and increasing their motivation to support learning. In the
long run, consideration should be given to incorporating HRD skills in
all management training programmes.

HRD functions should be more precisely defined and
recognised by top management as a major part of the global development
strategy of the company and seen as an investment rather than a cost.

Professional associations from different European
countries should organise events where HRD professionals can reach a
common terminology, exchange ideas and collectively try to solve
difficult challenges.

There is a need to change the view that learning is
just a classroom, teacher-based activity.

Companies should seek cooperation with (higher)
institutions for vocational education and with universities in order to
assist in the creation of an infrastructure for lifelong learning.

Administrations and governmental agencies should
set the example in adopting a clear learning organisation approach and
more sophisticated human resources development policies.

Since competence development is seen as a key
element of implementing the concept of the learning organisation,
further research is needed to develop valid and useful competence
profiles; better understanding of the facilitating and inhibiting
factors in competence assessment and development; and in coping
strategies of organisations that try to overcome problems in
implementing competence systems.

Further Information

Full title of the project - The
Role of HRD Within Organizations in Creating Opportunities for Life-Long
Learning: Concepts and Practices in Seven European Countries with the
final report Future challenges for HRD professionals in Europe
completed in August 2000.